Call Them What They Are (The analysis of the word terrorist)

Call Them What They Are (The analysis of the word terrorist)

Who counts as a terrorist? After the attack on the World Trade Center in 2001, the use of the word terrorism and terrorist has skyrocketed to the forefront of the news outlets vocabulary whenever an attack happens. However even though terrorism has been tragically performed by people of all races, only  people who are black and brown get called terrorist. The news media is more hesitant to call white people who commit crimes terrorist because it helps separate white people from the terrible incidents that happened in this country and keeps a white supremacist regime alive.

The word terrorism is defined by the Merriam-Webster dictionary as “the systematic use of terror, especially as means of coercion.” Then the dictionary goes on to define the word terrorist as “ an advocate for practitioner of terrorism” This means that any time a person intentionally harms people with intent to make them do something or make a statement, they are a terrorist and committing terrorism blatantly. However, there have been debates in the media between news outlets on deciding what incidents to call terrorism. It’s been common for people who commit terrorism in their own country, domestic terrorism, to not be labeled “terrorist’ by the media, because new reporters allow these people to get “name passes” so the United States doesn’t look as bad in hindsight.

Since what seems like the beginning of time, it seem like this label has been reserved for back, brown, and muslim people. Based on the data from the Google Ngram Viewer, which measures the mention of a word in text and media in different years, the word terrorism which had a slight downfall in the mid nineties had a boost in mentions in the year 2001. This has also lead to people associating terrorism and terrorist with people who are Muslim. This label has pinned the word to a specific race of people. From a survey done  in 2015 by Pewresearch.org it was estimated that there are about 1.8 billion Muslim people in the world. Of that 1.8 billion, 3.3 million of them live in the United States. That is way too many people to try to accurately to label all people of as a stereotype.

As an alternative to the name terrorist, labels of mentally ill have been given to white people who have committed the same acts as their non-white “terrorist” counterparts . Individuals that have been privileged to get the label of “sick” have been able to escape punishment, while people of color don’t have the chance to define themselves before a label is slapped on them. According to the Washington Post, when white male Dylan Roof fatally shot 9 members of Emanuel AME Church, the media outlets immediately started to label him as mentally ill. It seemed that white people that were called mentally ill were only given that title when they committed crimes against people of color but that is not the case. In December of 2012 a man named Adam Lanza went into Sandy Hook Elementary School and killed 28 people, most of the victims were children and white children at that. Yet again the media did not call him a terrorist, he was labeled as mentally ill. Also 2017 when 64 year old Stephen Paddock killed 59 people at a Las Vegas concert he was called a “lone wolf” This allowed white people to be separated from terrible acts by saying that no “normal” white person could have done this they had to have something wrong with them.

The media’s avoidance of the “terrorist” term is problematic because when someone distances themselves from the truth it only makes them weaker and less aware. It is important that people are either given appropriate labels or no labels at all. If a situation arises that involves “the systematic use of terror especially as means of coercion” the person that commited the crime should be called a terrorist regardless of their race, religion, or country of origin. Although the average American might not think that who gets that label of terrorist matters much,its influence goes beyond just a news story to how groups of people are viewed in society. It can have a detrimental effect on how future generation of those people view themselves as a whole.

Works CIted

Shane, Scott. “Terrorizing if Not Clearly Terrorist: What to Call the Las Vegas Attack?” The New York Times, The New York Times, 2 Oct. 2017, www.nytimes.com/2017/10/02/us/politics/terrorism-las-vegas-attack.html.

Tylt, The. “Is there a double standard for who gets called a terrorist?” The Tylt, The Tylt, 27 Sept. 2016, thetylt.com/culture/is-there-a-double-standard-for-who-gets-called-a-terrorist.

“Terrorism.” Merriam-Webster, Merriam-Webster, www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/terrorism.

Butler, Anthea. “Shooters of color are called 'terrorists' and 'thugs.' Why are white shooters called 'mentally ill'?” The Washington Post, WP Company, 18 June 2015, www.washingtonpost.com/posteverything/wp/2015/06/18/call-the-charleston-church-shooting-what-it-is-terrorism/?utm_term=.502243741417.